You shall keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the set time of the month of Aviv, for in the month of Aviv you went forth from Egypt. (From the Keri’ah of Shabbos Chol Hamo’ed)...
After Klal Yisroel sinned with the Golden Calf, Moshe begged Hashem for mercy. He marshalled forty days of arguments and Hashem accepted His tefilla and forgave Klal Yisroel. He taught them the thirteen attributes of compassion, and promised to take care of them again and bring them to Eretz Yisroel.
Now, the Torah tells us about the three yamim tovim, when we must travel to Yerushalayim and bring korbanos, celebrating our connection to Hashem. Why did the Torah repeat these Yamim Tovim after the story of the Golden Calf? The Torah already mentioned these Yomim Tovim in Parshas Mishpatim, prior to the story of the golden calf, why was it necessary to repeat this?
The Ohr Hachaim explains that all of the Yomim Tovim were instituted as a reminder of the exodus of Mitzrayim. We remember how Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim with great miracles and wonders, and that reminds us of our obligation to serve Hashem, worship Him, and follow His laws. Whenever the yetzer hara attempts to drag us away from His worship or send us to strange pastures, our regular reminders of the Exodus Hashem made for us, including His total control over everything that happens in this world, is enough to keep us aware of Who is really in charge in this world. Pesach reminds us of the first step of redemption, where Hashem, in His great love for us, performed miracles and wonders, even when we were unworthy. On Shavuos we remember how Hashem elevated us from the foolishness of Mitzrayim and transformed us into the nation that follows His Torah and is overcome and permeated with the values and ideas of the Torah and only the Torah. On Sukkos we remember how Hashem brought us through the desert with dedication, love, and care, and how we sat in His lap with the Shechina surrounding us. Nobody can revert to idol worship when he has internalized this message.
However, Klal Yisroel did the unthinkable and worshipped the Golden Calf. They forgot, or ignored, the lessons of the redemption and followed strange ideas and idols. The Yamim Tovim did not do their jobs, and they needed to learn the lesson again. Now that they had done teshuva and returned to their previous level, they needed a new commandment to remember the exodus from Mitzrayim and keep away from idol worship. Now that they were forgiven, a new commandment was given to celebrate three Yamim Tovim and remember the Exodus. We now have to learn those lessons again, and hopefully this time they would be successful.
This Ohr Hachaim is teaching us a deeper lesson than the simple pshat of the pessukim. The Vilna Ga’on answers the Rishonim’s question – why is Sukkos, which was instituted to celebrate the booths in which Klal Yisroel lived in the desert, celebrated so long after they left Mitzrayim? We left Mitzrayim on Pesach, we should celebrate Sukkos immediately afterwards?
The Vilna Ga’on answers that the yomtov of Sukkos is indeed a celebration of the clouds of glory that enveloped us as we left Mitzrayim. However, this is not about the clouds that came in Parshas Beshalach, immediately as they left Mitzrayim. When Klal Yisroel sinned with the golden calf, the clouds were removed from them, and were later returned through the erecting of the Mishkan. Hashem forgave Klal Yisroel for the golden calf, but the clouds of glory were returned to them when they began assembling and erecting the Mishkan. This happened on the fifteenth of Tishrei, and that is when we celebrate Sukkos.
It turns out that the celebration of Sukkos is not for the original kindness of Hashem, when He gave us clouds of glory to travel. We are celebrating the fact that He not only forgave us for what we did, but even returned us to our previous situation, elevating us as before.
This Ohr Hachaim is making a similar point. He is saying that not only were the clouds of glory removed from them, but the entire reason for the Yomim Tovim was removed, and now, after they did teshuva, Hashem granted them a new set of Yomim Tovim. Our celebration of Sukkos is, inherently, a celebration of Hashem’s acceptance of our Teshuva.
